Hygiene and Health Commissions in the Italian Parliament. A bio-prosopographical insight (1972-79)

The purpose of this study is to outline a bio-prosopography of Italian parliamentarians who, during the Seventies, were members of Hygiene and Health permanent Commissions [in Italian: Igiene e Sanità], both in Chamber of Deputies and Senate. The interest in collecting data of this parliamentary élite arises from the fact that between 1972 and 1979 Hygiene and Health Commissions were actively involved in the debate and instruction of crucial laws, concerning the psychiatric reform, the access to abortion and the birth of Servizio Sanitario Nazionale [National Health Service]. Once gathered, with the help of Parliamentary sources, punctual information about commissioners’ age, gender, education, profession, constituency of election, parliamentary group and previous experience in public institutions, my goals are to: - mark a comparison, within the same legislature, between the composition of the commissions in the two Chambers; - monitor, over the course of two legislatures, the existence of trend elements and/or discontinuities; - address an in-depth study to deputies and senators who were most dynamic in the Commissions’ efforts, considering their parliamentary activity, political formation and role played in their parties.